Author: Lorena

Discover the 2024 International Book Fair of Anthropology and History in Mexico

The International Book Fair of Anthropology and History 2024 took place at the renowned National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, located on the iconic Paseo de la Reforma. This museum, known for its 22 permanent exhibit halls, two temporary exhibition rooms, and three auditoriums, also houses the National Library of Anthropology and History. It is a treasure trove of cultural and historical knowledge, inviting visitors to explore the past and make meaningful connections with their heritage.

Each year, the museum hosts this vibrant book fair in its courtyard, where past and present come together. For 2024, the theme was “Cultural Heritage and Sustainability,” with Belize and the Mexican state of Quintana Roo as the guests of honor. The event was packed with activities, including book presentations, panel discussions, lectures, tributes, film screenings, outdoor concerts, and workshops. With more than 90 exhibitors, an outdoor forum, and five tents for exhibits and workshops, the 35th edition of the fair was held from August 8 to 18, solidifying its place as a major cultural event in Mexico and Latin America.

Highlights from the 2024 Fair

One of the main attractions was the presentation of the Antonio García Cubas Award, which honors outstanding editorial work in anthropology and history across nine categories. The fair offered a variety of booths, some featuring traditional Mexican music from Ediciones Pentagrama, known for their wide range of CDs that spotlight Mexico’s alternative music scene.

The folk art and tradition of Mexico were on display at the stand of Cartonería Martha Salvador, which showcased beautifully handcrafted pieces that reflect Mexican creativity and cultural themes. Similarly, Keto Textil and Kuxul Pok’brought embroidered clothing and handcrafted jewelry, emphasizing the rich history and craftsmanship that continues to thrive in modern Mexico.

Museo del Templo Mayor: 10 años

Although rich in academic content, the fair also catered to younger audiences. For example, Editorial Resistencia featured books like Nievecita and 7 cruces rosas, which sensitively address difficult subjects, such as violence in Mexico, in ways that children can understand. El Colegio de México offered classic titles like Historia mínima de México and the thought-provoking Historia mínima del comunismo y anticomunismo en el debate mexicano. Meanwhile, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte contributed in-depth research titles like Trama de una injusticia and Campamento migrante, which explore critical issues shaping the modern world.

Comunismo y anticomunismo en el debate mexicano

Book Presentations and Performances

Among the most anticipated book presentations was El códice de la cruz-Badiano: Reflexiones desde la ciencia, la historia y la antropología, considered a key work for understanding botany and the influence of indigenous cultures. Another standout was the introduction of Comedia a la gloriosa Magdalena: Estudio introductorio y edición crítica by Alejandro Arteaga Martínez, which brought fresh perspectives on Mexican theater.

Outdoor concerts at the Artistic Forum were a crowd favorite, filling the fair with music and drawing people from all over. Located next to the museum’s café, it was the perfect place to enjoy a break, sip on coffee, and engage in conversation with other visitors.

This lively book fair is more than just an opportunity to discover new literature—it’s a cultural experience that invites attendees to explore the museum’s temporary and permanent exhibitions, creating a deeper appreciation of Mexico’s history and heritage.

Inkitt: BbyKevs

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The fascination with cemeteries: reflections from Panteón Jardín

Panteón Jardín is located in San Ángel, Mexico City, and was established over 80 years ago in 1941. It’s vast and has so many sections that it’s easy to get lost among the crypts and corridors where the remains of ordinary people and artists from Mexican cinema, music, and the rest of the arts are kept. Names like Germán Valdés “Tin Tan”, Pedro Armendáriz, Maricruz Olivier, Marcelo Chávez, Fela Fábregas, Seki Sano, Andrés Soler, Fernando Valadés, and Fernando Wagner are just a few of those buried there. And in one of those rows lies my grandfather.

I confess I never met my grandfather, so there was no affection or desire to visit and clean his mausoleum. But there is a fascination with visiting Panteón Jardín. When people ask about my fascination with the cemetery, I can never give a concise answer. Is it because it reminds me of my childhood visits? Is it the fresh air from the many trees? Is it the silence provided by the dead? Maybe it’s a combination of all of these. The only thing I know for sure is that as I grew up, I realized I wasn’t the only one fascinated by cemeteries, their history, stories, and mysteries.

Death has been a topic of interest in every culture, wrapped in mysticism and rich in tales. For some civilizations, death symbolized not just the end but served as a central axis for existence. This human desire to transcend or leave something behind has motivated the construction of wonders like the Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Egypt, and even the pyramids of Teotihuacán, where recent discoveries have found burial chambers. Of course, these places were reserved for the privileged, like rulers or royalty. For the rest of society, there are other places like cemeteries, English graveyards, or even urns in some churches.

While some people prefer to stay away from such places and say we should respect the graveyard, there are people like me and Mariana Enriquez who find more than just oblivion among the tombs. “Someone Walks Over Your Grave” is a collection of stories about the author’s encounters with graves. From a flooded cemetery, Elvis Presley’s burial site, the beauty of an abandoned graveyard, the tomb of a poet buried standing up, tombstones protected by ghostly dogs, to miraculous children and voodoo priestesses. These are just a few examples; the author has gathered many journeys and visits to different cemeteries worldwide.

The beauty of Mariana Enriquez’s work lies not only in the places she visits but in the meaning and reflection she derives from them. After each visit, something inside her changes, and she is never the same again. Probably, all worthwhile journeys do that to us: they change us, reveal new thoughts, and allow us to see new perspectives. For Enriquez, visits to cemeteries are not just tourist trips but a deep search within herself to know what lies beyond. At the same time, her stories intertwine with her own life, redefining her experience and ours as readers. Her descriptions of the sites and the atmosphere are focused, detailed, and rich in specifics, offering everything so that anyone approaching the text can feel present there. However, above all, I find “Someone Walks Over Your Grave” an invitation to explore more, to visit places we might consider only for the dead, to reconcile with the place where we all will eventually arrive.

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Festival Sol Quieto: A Celebration of Music, Poetry, and Community

The Monument to the Bicentennial of National Independence in Mexico is better known as the “Estela de Luz” because, at night, it lights up and becomes part of the city’s landscape, thanks to its impressive height of 104 meters and 6 meters wide. Located on Paseo de la Reforma, it’s colloquially known as the “suavicrema” due to its pale yellow color and shape, reminiscent of Suavicrema cookies. At its base is the Digital Culture Center (CCD). The CCD has been a community space inviting reflection and hosting independent cultural projects for over thirteen years.

The CCD offers a diverse cultural program that includes immersive concerts, art and audiovisual exhibitions, workshops for all ages, film screenings, and recreational activities like the Festival Sol Quieto, which is held on Saturday, July 20th. This event aimed to bridge music, poetry, and video, featuring an independent book fair, video poetry screenings, an open mic for sharing poetry, and performances by artists Hospital de México, Sebastián Rojas, and Grito Exclamación.

The turnout was surprising, sometimes making the expansive CCD space feel too small for the enthusiastic crowd. Unlike typical literature and book events where attendees range from teenagers to seniors, this festival primarily attracted young adults in their 20s and 30s, often accompanied by friends. This demographic set the tone for the open mic, which featured voices of protest, social critique, and self-reflection from a young perspective. Not only did the young attendees fill the venue, but they also brought the event to life.

Elefanta, Miau Ediciones, U-Tópicas, Palíndroma, and Saca La Lengua Fanzine were among the editorial offerings. The event predominantly featured poetry, but there were also general literature titles and various fanzines. Highlights included books from Eloisa Cartonera, echoing the style of La Cartonera press, the award-winning poetry collection Retrato de un gusano blanco by Sayuri Sánchez, and the reflective stories of life’s fragility in Las cicadas by Yael Weiss.

The event’s pinnacle was the open mic, where unpublished writers could share their work. The anonymity allowed the reading of bold pieces like “These are the love stories we tell as children of the narco-state,” protesting societal violence without fear of retribution. Listening to these young poets prompts reflection on shared experiences living in this city at this historical moment, makes us curious about their influences, and underscores the importance of maintaining spaces for sharing music and poetry.

Inkitt: BbyKevs

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Del silencio al estruendo  Sara Sefchovich

Throughout the history of humanity, women and the fact of being women have been overlooked—until very recently. It’s important to make this distinction because those who haven’t thought about it should: education—both at home and in school—is almost entirely conceived from the male perspective. Women have had to understand the world through the lens of men. This perspective isn’t necessarily wrong, but it is biased. The world, as seen by women, is different and shouldn’t be expected to be the same because the experience of being a man and being a woman is different.

The way of understanding the world, history, and culture has been through men. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that emphasis began to be placed on the fact that women existed beyond their domestic roles, that they could think like anyone else and had rights, including the right to express their thoughts. Before this, it was known that women wrote, but entering that field and being taken seriously was not easy. Many women had to sign their works with pseudonyms or initials to get them published. Virginia Woolf, in “A Room of One’s Own,” acknowledges the class privilege she had that allowed her to write, coming from a wealthy family. She analyzes the paths Jane Austen and Emily Brontë had to tread and yet, throughout the book, she experiences moments of being ignored and underestimated for being a woman in a man’s world.

It is from this foundation that Sara Sefchovich draws to write “Del silencio al estruendo.” The author seeks, with this essay, to discover what women write about, from where they write, and to understand if there is a difference between female and male literature, and if so, where that difference lies. She undertakes the task of first establishing that there was a time when women could access the education that allowed them to read and write, and that there was a second period of peace in society when culture and the arts could flourish, and it was then that they wrote. Sefchovich seeks to understand the fabric of women writers and their works, observing the panorama throughout history, different cultures, and how it has changed over time, hoping to find a pattern or trend that explains what, how, and why women write.

One cannot write about the unknown. When women began to write, they did so about what surrounded them, and for many of them, the axis of their lives was their family and marriage, so they started there. This worked against them, of course, leading to the notion that women could only write romantic novels. Time had to pass for women’s writing to enter the realms of realism, naturalism, modernism, and genres like poetry, theater, and essays. The style and theme of each writer are individual and determined by their environment, ideology, values, social circumstances, and countless factors that give them a unique character. While this rule also applies to men, their social conditions remain different because the education provided to women and men continues to be distinct.

This book seeks to answer the major questions and inquiries that have been made about literature written by women, considering the context, history, and circumstances in which it has been created. This essay is a watershed between the past and the future, as it analyzes the parameters with which literature has been measured in general and sets the guidelines for how women’s literary work might be read and considered in the future.

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Rediscovering Zapata: legends and truths for children

When we hear the history of our country—whatever it may be—we often think of it as something that happened to other people, in another life, something distant not just in time but in space. At times, it seems like it never happened at all. It’s normal to find it difficult to imagine how the world was before we knew it as it is today; even connecting our own present with our own past can be challenging, as much—if not everything—has changed since childhood. Hence the importance—and the human need—to leave a mark of our existence behind, to tell stories, to seek to endure. It’s a natural inclination. In many towns in Mexico, the custom of passing down history, customs, and traditions through oral storytelling persists.

In a poorly told story, we can all be “the villain,” just as when we tell our version, we’ll always be “the hero.” However, regardless of being “good” or “bad”—which is highly subjective—the truth is that history, as written in books, is portrayed from the perspective of the victors. Understanding other perspectives of an event becomes challenging when we can only ask the deceased. Asking Emiliano Zapata about the revolution would be impossible (though wonderful to hear), which is why today he has become nothing less than a symbol. The ideological legacy he left behind is so powerful that after more than 110 years, his slogan “Land and Liberty” continues to be the rallying cry for those who still rebel against a system that oppresses them.

For those who have had an interest in delving deeper into history, in digging beyond what public school books offer, they have discovered that the southern leader was more than just a man interested in power. It’s said that when he sat in the presidential chair—without seeking any kind of title—he said to Francisco Villa, seated beside him, “And this is what they fight over?” But that could well be just an urban legend. What this title offers is something much more genuine and real: it’s the story of someone who was there, a man who in his youth was a Zapatista.

“And Zapata Keeps Riding” is a short story aimed especially at children, written by Victor Hugo Sánchez Reséndiz and published by La Cartonera. The narrative is simple yet captivating from the first page due to its authenticity, themes, and passion. Sánchez Reséndiz recounts the story of his grandfather, who used to tell children who approached him how it was to fight alongside Zapata, the reasons they did it, what life was like before, and how it was after the Mexican Revolution. He also tells them about the true fate of the leader and how he didn’t die as history says but went to Arabia, because he’s coming back to fight for freedom. This is what brings beauty to the story: the intimate aspects, the moments exaggerated for the sake of the narrative, the pride with which it’s told.

Although increasingly distant, the past is something that shapes our existence. It’s necessary to be able to reconcile with the past we have as a nation, to honor our origins, and to make peace with the dark episodes that have fallen—as they do for everyone—in our country. When we can do that, we can leave the past where it belongs and look towards tomorrow. And it’s important to clarify that leaving the past behind is not about forgetting it; on the contrary, it’s about acknowledging it. In recognizing it lies the rescue of stories like this one, valuable because they are part of the everyday; because the world has not been built only by the names that appear in books but by all the people who accompanied them, like Sánchez Reséndiz‘s grandfather. This title is filled with nostalgia, tender descriptions of Morelos and its people, but especially with tradition.

Inkitt: BbyKevs

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Arts Bazar 2024: A Celebration of Creativity at CASUL

On Saturday, June 29th, La Casa Universitaria del Libro (CASUL) opened its doors once again for another edition of Arts Bazar. The event showcased an impressive array of creations, including comics, illustrated fanfics, copics, fanzines, graphic novels, and printed illustrations in serigraphy, risography, and posters with various finishes: matte, glossy, and holographic. The bazaar also featured an assortment of items like mugs, pens, pins, collectible cards, and many other products. A unique aspect of this event was that, in most cases, the artists and creators of the displayed works were also the exhibitors, providing an opportunity to ask them directly about their pieces and projects.

CASUL is located in Roma Norte, on Orizaba Street. This venue organizes events, courses, workshops, and other activities open to the public. The contrast between the colonial house with its wooden floors, high ceilings, and large windows and the modernity of Arts Bazar created a harmonious atmosphere where the old met the new. The event was spread across three rooms, two of them circular, resulting in a round exhibition where attendees had to see all the tables to enter and exit. A podium was also available for presentations of graphic novels, such as “Regueiras” by Eterno Femenino Editorial, discussions like “Perspectives and Challenges of Self-Publishing Comics in Mexico” by Virus Visal, and “Creative Process of the Project The Importance of Being Mexican” by Ric Velasco, as well as workshops and presentations of new editorial projects.

Decomixado Comic & Toy Store , one of the most important comic stores due to its extensive catalog of new titles and collectible, rare, and discontinued items, was present with a wide range of comics, some even in protective acrylic cases for collectors. Sharkius brought comics and graphic novels for all ages with diverse themes such as superhero stories like the independent Mexican comic “Códices infinitos,” comic strips, LGBT+ love stories, and even the story of siblings who disappear after entering a cave from which a witch was said to have emerged 100 years earlier to terrorize the town, a tale found in “Sábado negro” by Tiras sin Sentido.

Asfalto presented a series of graphic novels and fanzines with darker themes, offering a perspective of a possible post-apocalyptic world filled with humanoid figures. In a similar post-apocalyptic vein, Joshua Hernández’s “Ecatepunk” draws inspiration from the movie “Mad Max” and punk culture to tell a story of what might happen after the near-extinction of humanity, suggesting that certain social conditions, inequalities, and violences would persist as they are inherent to humanity. Arturo Piña explores twisted human issues in several of his fanzines such as “Mente D’Mente” and “La taxidermista,” where death lurks despite seemingly harmless situations. In contrast, Gnomariana showcased the two volumes of her comic strip series “Red Flags,” depicting small moments of modern romantic relationships, while Dacachi exhibited three of his graphic novels, each featuring beautiful illustrations that you could purchase individually as a set of collectible cards.

Arts Bazar successfully gathered a diverse array of artists, demonstrating that creativity knows no bounds and manifests differently in each of us. Presenting at CASUL added an extra appeal, making it a great excuse to visit the Roma Norte neighborhood on a weekend. Undoubtedly, attending this event requires setting aside a good part of the day, as it is definitely worth exploring all the tables.

Inkitt: BbyKevs

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Emerging voices: youth and innovation at FIC UNAM 2024

When we think of cinema in Mexico, it often harkens back to the Golden Age of Cinema and more recently, to the triumvirate of Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro González Iñárritu—especially in international circles. However, it’s important to draw a distinction between Mexican cinema, cinema in Mexico, and Mexicans making films abroad—though they may seem similar, they are distinct. Despite these differences, what is clear today is the increased prominence of this art form in the country, focusing not only on national productions but also on film schools and young creators—who are numerous and undoubtedly seeking to find their identity as filmmakers and create original works.

In this context, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) once again hosted the International Film Festival, held from June 13th to June 30th, primarily at the Centro Cultural Universitario. Established in 2011, this festival was originally conceived to promote contemporary international and Mexican cinema, now regarded as one of the most influential festivals in Mexico City and the country for art cinema. Each year, it has attracted not only more attendees and media coverage but also expanded its activities, including film screenings, lectures, discussions, performances, tributes to global cinematic figures, and various film encounters with open calls to the general public, culminating in an awards ceremony.

Additionally, a UNAM bookstand was set up at the CCU, featuring a selection of works ranging from recent releases to titles that have been part of its catalog for several years. Dominated by categories like music, theater, cinema, and literature, one of the standout titles was “Alguien camina sobre tu tumba” by Mariana Enríquez, notable not only for its colorful cover but also for its updated edition that includes new stories from cemeteries around the world visited by the author. Also featured was “El lejano Oriente de la poesía mexicana,” a compilation of Mexican poetry inspired by Eastern countries and their culture, alongside volumes of “El Ensayo,” a collection of Mexican essays seeking to emphasize their literary value, correcting the notion that this genre is often overlooked in Mexico.

Similar to the previous year, the festival collaborated with the Locarno Film Festival to host the Locarno Industry Academy Mexico. This workshop is aimed at young people from Mexico and Latin America interested in sustaining independent cinema circulation, covering aspects like distribution—both online and traditional—sales, marketing, exhibition, festival programming, and other technical aspects. High school, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as the general public, were invited to participate in the Alfonso Reyes “Fósforo” Film Criticism Contest, where they could write essays on a selected film showcased at FIC UNAM.

The core purpose of this event lies in sharing cinema—sharing it in all its facets: taking it to new places, watching it with others, discussing and debating it, and experiencing different perspectives of cinema. It’s intriguing to note that most workshops and lectures target young audiences, and the majority of attendees at screenings are also young, perhaps seeking films not readily available in mainstream cinemas or that are inaccessible due to limited distribution. However, this grand edition has heightened anticipation for next year’s celebration of the project’s 15th anniversary.

Inkitt: BbyKevs

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Discover the Charm of Coyoacán and Its 2024 International Book Fair

The Center of Coyoacán is an iconic location in Mexico City. Walking through its cobblestone streets, exploring its alleys and narrow roads, and admiring the architecture of its houses and buildings is a delight. However, it brings together a series of elements that distinguish it from other similar spaces in the city: the Parish of San Juan Bautista, Hidalgo Plaza with its fountain adorned with coyote statues, the kiosk, the restaurants, cafes, bookstores, and ice cream shops on the surrounding streets, and the cultural centers. If one needs an excuse to visit this place, the Coyoacán International Book Fair 2024 provides it.

In Hidalgo Plaza, the third edition of this fair took place. Tents were set up to accommodate 180 exhibitors (publishers, bookstores, and independent projects), as well as conferences, discussion panels, conversations, book presentations, and workshops. The diversity of workshops ranged from origami, watercolor, and drawing to bookbinding, paper masks, and papier-mâché. Other activities included storytelling, concerts, dance performances, and dramatic readings. All these activities were free and open to the public.

The State of Guanajuato was a guest at this fair, presenting its editorial project that aims to give voice to various proposals under the direction of the State Institute of Culture of Guanajuato and its publishing house Ediciones La Rana. Likewise, the Francophonie was invited. Due to political agendas in the country, this collaboration took place in January with representatives from the embassies of France, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, and Haiti, celebrating Francophone culture and arts in Coyoacán and reading the book “The Rooster and the Serpent.” This title compiles poems introducing contemporary French poetry to Mexico, drawing an analogy between the rooster (France) and the serpent (Mexico).

Among the exhibitors, Mango Manila Editorial stood out with a simple yet effective strategy: they set up children’s tables and chairs with books at a child’s height, precisely targeting their material to them. Also, with a desire to engage children in journalism, the newspaper La Crónica coordinated an activity where children were given vests and microphones to interview the exhibitors. For attendees of all ages, they offered another attractive activity: taking photos and printing them on the front page of a newspaper.

La Cartonera found its place in the Espacio M tent, dedicated to artist books, book objects, and self-published editions. Their titles are as varied as their authors, focusing primarily on poetry, novels, short stories, and some translations, uniquely bound in cardboard with hand-painted covers, giving each copy exclusive identity and value. In the same tent, Pedro de Jesús led an ex libris stamping activity, sharing his work from Cuernavaca at the fair.

The week assigned for visiting this fair may seem short, considering all the activities, but it promises to be an annual event. We hope it continues to bring many more activities, talks, concerts, readings, workshops, and, most importantly, books to the public.

Inkitt: BbyKevs
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Movimiento Zapatista

“Aprendizajes del movimiento zapatista: de la insurgencia armada a la autonomía popular” – Lia Pinheiro Barbosa y Peter Michael Rosset

Considering Mexico as a tourist destination is always a good decision. It has beautiful beaches, cenotes, forests, towns, ancient civilization ruins, exquisite cuisine, and people who always welcome tourists warmly. On the other hand, living in Mexico City is an experience I would highly recommend. There is a mix of folklore, color, and tradition alongside the modernity of global technological advancements. In this city, there are many cultural and artistic offerings, numerous tourist attractions, and access to education. However, these two views are a bias that has been generated, perhaps because we tend to see the glass as half full. But the reality for those living on the outskirts of the city and those living in the provinces — not so far from the main tourist centers — is very different.

This movement began on the night of January 1, 1994, when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) staged an armed uprising in San Cristóbal de las Casas, presenting the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle: eleven demands—work, land, shelter, food, health, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace. In essence, what they were demanding was as simple as it was fundamental: rights. These rights, which by the mere fact of being Mexicans, were already guaranteed by the laws established in the Constitution of 1917, but over the decades, they had been deprived of them or directly denied them. Who denied them these rights? Who marginalized the indigenous communities? The government could easily be partly responsible for this by not having the means to ensure the full exercise of their rights by providing roads and schools with adequate teaching materials, and establishing workplaces with fair working hours and wages, which in turn would allow them to access housing with water, sewage, and electricity services, as well as food and clothing. However, in this complex situation, there remains another actor to be named: the rest of society.

The modern society that adopted the customs of the conquerors lives in cities, speaks Spanish, and embraced a system that proposed neoliberalism as an economic model—a system that indirectly led to the EZLN movement. Although it is a society with many shortcomings and issues to resolve, it is not comparable to the precarious situation of most indigenous people in Mexico. While we are all Mexicans, the opportunities and contexts are not the same: indigenous communities have often been isolated and discriminated against for maintaining their customs and traditions, leading to them being seen as “the others.” This has created a separation that has only widened the cultural, economic, and political gap, culminating in the indigenous-peasant movement. This movement has had its flaws, like any autonomy, but it has maintained a legitimate struggle in the social aspect and has, in turn, inspired more similar manifestations.

The Latin American Council of Social Sciences offers readers a collection of books that aim to document the main movements, uprisings, and conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 21st century. Among them is this title, where the authors explain how, three decades after its inception, Zapatismo offers the most comprehensive, explicit, and radical version of indigenous-peasant autonomy known in the contemporary world. Thus, it becomes an essential read for understanding the current context of the countries in Central and South America.

Inkitt: BbyKevs
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Kermés “Editing the Everyday”

On the rooftop of the UNAM Museum, the fourth edition of the kermesse “Editing the Everyday” took place today, Saturday, April 13th. Although it may sound unusual, it is precisely that: a kermesse. At the entrance of the museum, a stand was set up where people could get prints stamped on their skin like tattoos, serving as an invitation to go up to the kermesse, which was held on the rooftop. Upon entering the rooftop, attendees were greeted with hibiscus water and basket tacos. The event dynamics were explained, and “churru-pesos” bills were distributed, which could be exchanged for activities at the stands or items for sale, essentially serving as a welcome. The organizers of this event are 10 self-managed editorial collectives seeking to showcase their work as fanzine creators, while also creating a space to welcome both those familiar and unfamiliar with their work.

In Mexico, there are times of the year when, to commemorate special dates such as Independence Day and Mother’s Day, schools organize events called “kermesses.” These events are about socializing with classmates through games, activities, and sharing food. They were even more enjoyable when students were allowed to wear everyday clothes instead of uniforms, adding an extra appeal. Thus, the kermesse was the most “punk” moment of the year. For these fanzine creators, who know that the origin of the fanzine is rooted in punk culture, they have revived these two concepts to create “Editing the Everyday.”

The fact that it is a kermesse is not a coincidence; it is an idea developed by La Zinería and Editorial Mitote. They invite colleagues from the field whom they have met along their journey in editing and publishing. This journey has mainly been through bazaars and certain cultural events where, during social interactions, they noted that there are no spaces exclusively for them and their work as fanzine editors and independent publishers. So, not finding a place in book fairs or venues that open their doors to them, these collectives organize themselves and seek their own places for meetings and exhibitions.

The artistic offerings ranged from fanzines to prints, illustrations, posters, newspaper figures, paintings, and items covered in epoxy resin. Additionally, there were talks, workshops, and readings in a room below where the kermesse took place. I came across titles such as “Cómo romper el corazón de un elefante” by Brian O’Brien, which narrates how elephants are kidnapped and separated from their herd to be trained and sold to zoos or circuses. Larissa Alcántara presented “¿A qué velocidad viaja el pasado que siempre nos alcanza?” where she discusses drug use during adolescence, packaging the fanzine in a plastic bag along with colorful stickers, small candies, and bead bracelets that resemble pills, thus creating an analogy to how drugs are packaged and presented. Baruck Racine created a photographic fanzine that tells the story of his life in the USA during his childhood, his life in Mexico, and how the border separating the two countries is not just physical. Additionally, the UNAM Fanzinoteca lent material for exhibition, which is part of their catalog that can be consulted at any time in their archival center.

The main idea of these collectives, besides showcasing their work, is to create spaces and build communities. They find it essential to break the stigmatization of what art should be and for whom it is intended. This particular vision arises because the creators have found that in their communities of origin, which they refer to as “the periphery”—Xochimilco, Ecatepec, Cuautla, Tláhuac, Morelos, Tlalnepantla—there is little openness to the graphic and artistic expression they produce. Few spaces have taken the risk in previous editions of this kermesse to open their doors and even fewer to finance them. Therefore, by joining efforts among collectives, they prepared an open invitation to the general public, creating an event where children are also welcome, offering young ones the opportunity to engage with this world and show them that there are people who make a living by “drawing pictures.”

@yolitzin_amantolli

@larissadeltiempo

@___existo___

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